The most important item in any riders kit is always a helmet, first and foremost as it can be the difference between walking away from a crash and being permanently off the bike or worse. With helmets becoming more tailored towards different riding disciplines, it’s important to identify what kind of helmet will suit how and what you ride.  In this review we take a look at the Lazer Oasiz helmet; a lightweight offering sitting in the growing All Mountain (cough, Enduro!) category…

Words: Mat Keane | Photos: Nathan Carvell 

For those that have been riding mountain bikes since the nineties, the brand will probably ring a bell and conjour up images of low cost helmets, which unfortunately never really made it on to anyones wish list of bike bling. But that could well be changing… Since 2010 Lazer have been working in conjunction with 4X legend and all round MTB legend, Brian Lopes to produce a helmet that can compete with the major brands in the AM category.

The Oasiz surely ticks all the right aesthetics boxes, but in order to see how it fared on my head and in the real world – time for some Enduro racing and a few day off-piste in the Alps.

The Oasiz helmet is supplied in its own Lazer branded helmet bag and comes packed with features – one of the most noticeable of was the weight. Sitting on your bonce with a mere weight of 285g, this helmet is light for an All Mountain helmet and impressive considering this design has a deeper cut at the rear and offering greater protection over a conventional MTB helmet.

The amount of features Lazer list for this helmet is impressive to say the least and additional add-ons can be bought to make this helmet a mounting base for your lights and video recorder should you wish. These are some of the features listed for the Oasiz:

• Fit System: Rollsys Retention System
• Construction: In-Mold (3 pieces)
• Ventilation: 21 vents
• Weight: 285g (M) CE
• Certification: CE – CPSC – AS
• Magic buckle
• Adjustable head basket
• Interchangable “top wing mount” for Go-Pro or lights
• Removable Coolmax padding

The ability to mount a GoPro directly onto a specificly designed wing (sold separately and just pulls on and off) is a nice touch and would appeal to people who get fed up with spending time getting a good fit for their headcam with those sometimes annoying adhesive tabs. However we could not find anywhere to buy said wing from, so don’t base your opinion to purchase one of these helmets on the wing feature unless you have managed to hunt one down…

The Oasiz only comes in two sizes, which can be off putting for those with smaller heads like myself and all the adjustments need to be used to allow a good fit. Unlike many other helmets the Oasiz is not supplied with additional padding and the ‘Coolmax’ liner is quite thin, so using all the adjustments is crucial to get a good fit.  There are three adjustment points (I’m counting the straps as one) for getting the fit right on the helmet.

The ‘Rollsys’ system uses a barrel on the top of the helmet which tightens the helmet basket using a cable which goes around the basket.  All though I couldn’t use the Rollsys to tighten as firmly around my head as my usual Giro Xen, this probably would’nt be a problem for someone who normally wears a medium helmet or bigger.

The basket itself slides up and down on an incremented slider to increase its grip around your head. Initially I had missed this as its an adjustment I haven’t used before and it wasn’t until a certain wise Northern sprocket had pointed out this adjustment allowing me to get a decent fit…

The straps offer the third adjustment… I had to tighten the straps up more than I would have liked to in order to provide a good stable fit. This proved quite uncomfortable for the first couple of rides as the the combination of tight straps and the large buckle didn’t mix well with my neck or boost my overall confidence in the helmet.

Out on the trail

The buckle system uses a magnetic buckle which makes one handed coupling quite easy – just place the buckles on top of each other and it snaps together perfectly every time. Once closed the buckle stays closed so its has some advantages over conventional buckles and looks pretty cool too. The only downside is that the buckle is more bulky than a conventional snap fit buckle and as mentioned previously, is uncomfortable if the strap has to be more on the tight side.

After three months of riding and clocking up a lot of trail miles, the helmet still looks tidy and im not even considering taking the liner out for wash – thicker, more absorbing pads need a lot more maintenance!

The helmet has a healthy amount of ventilation (especially for a helmet in this category) and combined with the Coolmax liner does an excellent job of keeping your bonce dry and cool. Part of this can be contributed to the fact that the helmet padding is quite thin in comparison to many others and doesn’t hold sweat like more substantial padding – method in the madness they say? This does of course give a less snug fit, but on the plus side, it does stop the helmet from becoming a rancid mess of salty sweat stains…

We still cant figure out what the rubber band with the phone logo on is for – answers on a post card please!

I like the general look and aesthetic feel of the Oasiz – it’s very angular and a bit less organic looking than what the competition are doing and a plus if you don’t want to follow the crowd.

Conclusion

The Oasiz is a good lightweight trail helmet with sensible venting that excels in warmer conditions, while offering some pretty neat features. With an RRP of £100, it’s pretty competitive with the bigger brands, but can it stand up to the more established brands? It certainly shows that there’s room for more helmet options and especially ones that offer something that the other don’t, which the Oasiz certainly does. It’s a pretty unique helmet and available in a good range of colours (including neon yellow) to keep all but the fussiest rider content.

As with all helmets, it’s always best to try before you buy as head shapes differ tremendously as do the fits of individual helmets between brands and model. For me, the Oasiz wasn’t a perfect fit, but as I’ve spent time in it, I’ve ultimately gotten used to the fit and feel and have come to prefer the tighter fit cage system around my head. All in all, it wasn’t love at first fit, but the more I’ve used the Lazer Oasiz, the more I like it and I’d certainly recommend anyone looking for a new trail helmet to take a closer look at the Oasiz.

Lazer helmets are distributed in the UK by Madison and for everything Lazer and beyond, tap the logo below. Enjoy the ride, Mat.

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